My first article as "Mr. Liberal" on DailyKos was published on October 26, 2003. I was 15 years old, and had just been named by Markos the month before as a "guest poster" for the website (he posted a few articles by me that I had written before I opened my account).
The first entry makes me cringe a little – let’s just say it wasn’t exactly Pulitzer-Prize winning material (When your last two paragraphs begin with "Finally", you know it’s in need of editing!) It was a brief update on the three gubernatorial races being held in the fall of 2003 (Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana’s runoff), together with a polling update from Illinois.
The title of the piece, one that is equally relevant today was this: "Don’t Lose Heart Yet". While I didn’t realize it at the time, the statement might well be a summation of my life in politics (online and offline) since.
Note: I'm a candidate for local office this year. If you'd like to help, the website is Berkeley Heights Democrats.
Since that first paragraph was typed on my first article, I have written 255 more on DailyKos.com. The vast majority have been about campaigns for Congress, Senate and House cycles that have been ended either with euphoria (2006 and 2008) or disappointment (2004), and sometimes both. Some have discussed candidates that I was supporting for office, in my home state of New Jersey or elsewhere – candidates I strongly believed would be excellent Democratic leaders in office – while others touched on political matters that were personal to me.
What do they all have in common? It is this – I write about campaigns because I’ve never lost heart in the potential of our country to elect leaders that will make good on the promise of our nation. The vast majority of those leaders are Democrats, simply because the other side’s rhetoric is only slightly scarier than their beliefs.
But there’s a reason I chose "Mr. Liberal" and not "Mr. Democrat" as my moniker back in 2003. I am a liberal because I know our nation’s promises are fulfilled through America’s version of liberalism – ensuring economic and legal opportunity for all who come to our shores. Our history has shown, time and again, that it was liberals (sometimes Democrats, sometimes Republicans) who brought our country closer to what Hubert Humphrey said in 1948: "a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely [and] well." Conservatism, clinging to law-of-the-jungle economics and NIMBY-esque social policies has reigned over our nation far more often, but Liberalism has achieved far more good.
Whether you consider yourself a "liberal", "progressive" or just "Democrat", you and I are in the same boat together. We blog, debate and (sometimes) lurk on DailyKos because we care about our country, and we want it to realize its full potential. Whether it is because we wish to be active in doing so, or simply to express our frustration with the snail’s pace of progress, we joined this site. We may support different ways of making progress, and I can’t count how many times DailyKos erupted in the last Presidential cycle, but in the end we stick around (most of us, anyway).
I can’t say exactly how many "Kossacks" were here when I first begin posting in 2003 (the records on DKosopedia have info from much earlier that year). When in July 2004 I posted a "breaking news" diary on a Congressional race in Pennsylvania, I remember being shocked that 134 comments had been made on it – because the number was so high. That this community has grown (with the necessary pains accompanying that growth) and developed the way it has is nothing short of remarkable. I could never have imagined the concept of "Netroots Nation" in 2003, let alone it becoming an annual Mecca for political bloggers (and the politicians who seek their votes and money).
But we’re a lot more than just political junkies. Many of the diaries I’ve seen at the top of the recommended section have little or nothing to do with Obama, Bush or any particular election. Some deal with tragedies – Katrina, Iraq, the "Green Revolution", personal loss. Others, however, are sources of hope and inspiration – personal accounts of achievement, positive events in our country and the world. DailyKos, unlike any other political blog I’ve written or lurked on, is a community. We are the largest political community the Internet has ever seen – and what unites us is not a common ideology, but a common vision for our country. We believe in our government’s potential to make good, and we are constantly striving to make that potential a reality.
And that is what DailyKos means to me.
This election cycle looks bleak; the wolves of discontent are at the gates, our leaders fail to invigorate us, their leaders scare the daylights out of us. Yet I still firmly believe in the first words I wrote on DailyKos, nearly 7 years ago: "Don’t Lose Heart Yet". 2010 will not be "our" year, but this is still "our" country, and I for one don’t plan on giving up the cause. My hope – and I’m an optimist at heart – is that I won’t be alone when the Democratic tide of 2006 and 2008 recedes. After all, the tides come and go, but the potential of our country – and ours with it – is constant.